Hurricane Bertha

I'm living in Palm Beach. The Atlantic is about 100 yards away from the house on King's Road. A Storm surge of twenty feet would put me under water and National Hurricane Center has alerted the public that the storm Bertha has strengthened to become the first hurricane of the Atlantic season. It's generating winds of 75 mph about 1000 east of my position. The sunny skies overhead are deceptive. It's traveling at 20 miles per hour. The meteorologists can predict its tracks, giving me about 50 hours to prepare for its landfall.

I hope I have enough beer.

As of 5 a.m. Monday, Hurricane Bertha was about 845 miles east of the northern Leeward Islands. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center say it is too early to say if or where the storm will hit land.

My great-grandaunt was named Bertha.

We called her Bert.

She lived to 103.